An heroic retired police officer has broken a 40-year silence over the moment he came face-to-face with notorious killer Billy Hughes in the infamous Rainow hostage stand-off.

Peter Howse was the chief inspector of the Buxton South sub-division of Derbyshire Police in January, 1977, when Hughes escaped from custody.

Hughes had stabbed two prison officers in the neck while in a taxi on his way to court to face charges of grievous bodily harm and rape, after stabbing a man in the face and attacking his girlfriend.

He then fled across the Derbyshire moorland in the snow until he stumbled on Pottery Cottages in Eastmoor, near Chesterfield where, over 55 hours, he killed four members of the same family – including a young child.

Hughes took a hostage, Gill Moran, but in his bid to escape to Manchester crashed the car in Rainow.

Police, including Peter Howse, were able to surround the murderer in the car.

After a 50-minute negotiation – with his hostage’s life hanging in the balance – the tension broke when Hughes swung an axe at his victim.

Peter, now 79, said: “He shouted ‘right, your time is up’ and went for her. I tried to stop him and dived through the window of the car. Then one of the firearms officers shot through the back window. It hit him in the back of head but amazingly didn’t penetrate his skull – it just made him more wild.”

After two more shots, another firearms officer moved to the driver’s side and finally brought Hughes’ struggles to an end.

“Even that wasn’t a clean shot, said Peter. “It went in at his shoulder but ended up entering his heart and killing him.”

Looking back, Peter said many factors contributed to the ordeal ending the way it did. A healthy portion of luck combined with good judgement meant that the criminal died – and the hostage survived.

But Peter says he has always wondered what might have happened if it had gone the other way.

“I wonder if I would have got the same support if Gill had died,” he said. “It is a thin line between success and failure.”

Peter said: “I actually met with her three months after it all happened. She had lost a lot of weight. We just chatted – she wanted to say thank you.”

Peter, who was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for his actions, is now writing a book about the case.